Temporary Alliance
by TehMarishal
Summary: After getting damaged in an energon explosion, Terrorsaur and Airazer must rely on each other to save their skins. But what if they start to develop feelings for each other in the process? Please R&R.


_A/N I hope I didn't make Terrorsaur or Airazer out of character at all. I've just never focused on Terrorsaur in a fic before, and in some ways it seems like Airazer was never developed much in Beast Wars, so in some ways, I'm just sorta guessing what they might say to each other. Anyway, enjoy!_

Terrorsaur awoke in the CR chamber within the Predacon base. "Repair cycle complete," the dull, feminine voice of the Predacon computer said. Terrorsaur stepped out of the CR bath, with two thoughts on his mind.

The first thought was; _I have failed! I let that stasis pod and that protoform slip right through my fingers! _Part of him was afraid of what Megatron was going to do to him because of this failure, although _hopefully_ the Predacon leader wouldn't bother to do much, considering he'd been blasted apart by that new Maximal. _And perhaps I can stretch the truth a little, that always works,_ he thought. _I can blame it on Waspinator—no one ever believes him anyway, and he always fails at whatever he does!_

The second thought that crossed his mind as he moved away from the CR bath was quite simply, _That new Maximal was kinda cute…_

He froze at the thought. In a way he felt disgusted and shocked at himself for even _thinking_ that. But the truth was, well… she certainly did have some slick moves, she was fast enough to send him to the CR chamber, and she _was_ cute, for a Maximal anyway.

He growled under his breath, and stamped his foot as he began walking toward the main control room. In truth, he hadn't even realized that the new Maximal was a fem-bot until she had faced him in the air, uttering the words, "Airazer, Maximize!" in a clearly feminine voice.

Part of him wondered, just for an instant, if perhaps _that_ was why he'd gotten beaten so badly, so quickly. He remembered they had wrestled with each other in the air, tumbling toward the ground, and then they split apart. Then, he had fired at her, but she neatly dodged the blasts, then she fired at him… and the next thing he knew, he was waking up in the CR bath.

_No, ridiculous!_ He thought. There was _no_ way he'd hesitated in the slightest just because she was kinda pretty. She had simply bested him, and he would make her _pay_ for that if he ever saw her again in combat. Which he was very certain he would.

"Ah," Terrorsaur heard Megatron's familiar, deep voice as he walked into the main control room. "So, you're awake," the Predacon leader said, turning his throne-like chair to look at him.

"Yeah," Terrorsaur replied. "And ready to slag some Maximals!"

"Your eagerness is commendable, yess," Megatron said, stroking the T-rex head on his arm. Terrorsaur could have sworn that the animal eyes on the dinosaur head were looking at Megatron, although he quickly dismissed the thought; there were more important things to focus on. "But there is something I need you to do. I want you and Scorponok to go out and get some raw energon, and bring it back to the base. Our energy reserves are getting low."

Terrorsaur growled under his breath. He had just barely come out of the CR chamber, and the first thing he gets ordered to do is to do some grunt work to refuel the base. Wonderful. However, he knew better than to argue with Megatron, for the Predacon leader was still watching him closely, especially since Terrorsaur had already tried to take over as commander of the Predacons once—and even temporarily succeeded. Terrorsaur had been made to look like a fool in front of his fellow Predacons, and he'd lost any trust that Megatron had had in him—not that Predacons "trusted" each other much in the first place.

Terrorsaur knew the main reason why he was being sent on this mission, though; he was the only one who had the knowledge to safely segment larger crystal formations if they came across any.

"Alrighty then," the pterosaur Predacon finally said, and switched over to his beast mode. With that, he and Scorponok departed from the base. _Maybe I'll be lucky enough to get a chance to blow up some Maximals while we're out there, _Terrorsaur thought.

The pair of Predacons journeyed to the area where numerous energon deposits had been detected, and then they began scouting. Terrorsaur flew higher into the sky, looking downward and scanning the area for stable energon that could be harvested and collected. It wasn't long before he managed to spot a sizeable crystal formation—one that was about two feet in diameter and three feet high.

"Okay, looks like a good find," Terrorsaur said as he landed gracefully beside the formation. "Now, you patrol the area while I segment this thing."

Scorponok was offended. "Hey, I am second-in-command—I will give the orders!"

"Oh yeah?" Terrorsaur huffed. "How else would we do this? Unless you'd rather segment this energon crystal and blow us both to the Pit!"

Scorponok was silent for a moment, then said, "Very well, I will patrol the area." Then, as if to save face and retain his pride, he glared at Terrorsaur. "And hurry up! We don't want to keep Megatron waiting."

"'Hurry up, we don't want to keep Megatron waiting!'" Terrorsaur mocked in a poor imitation of Scorponok's voice. "Well," he said with a sigh, as he began to focus on the crystal, "let's get this over with." He then set to work.

--

Airazer was on a scout patrol. She found that she enjoyed being out on patrol rather than at the base, because out here she felt… free, and alive. She wasn't sure if it was because her beast mode was a falcon or not. But she herself admiring the landscapes as she flew over them, and she loved to take in every detail. That was part of what made her such a good scout as well—not much escaped her notice.

She was currently observing an area that was considered "neutral" by both the Maximals and Predacons, because it was a bit out of the way to be considered a part of either territory. Although now she was getting rather close to the Predacon territory, and would soon be turning around to head back to the base. So far, she hadn't seen much interesting going on.

Just as she'd decided that there was no Predacon activity whatsoever to report, she suddenly spotted Terrorsaur with her keen hawk-vision. She then magnified what she was looking at with her optical sensors.

"Yep, that's Terrorsaur all right," she murmured aloud to herself. She began to circle overhead, as though she were simply a regular bird looking for prey. _Looks like he's working on harvesting an energon crystal,_ she thought. It didn't look like it was an overly impressive amount of energon, though—perhaps just enough to power their base. _They're probably just running low on their power reserves, and need to replenish it,_ she deduced.

However, while she was focused on Terrorsaur, she did not see Scorponok, and she certainly didn't know that the scorpion Predacon had noticed her. In fact, not only had Scorponok seen her, he'd also transformed and locked onto her with a missile.

--

"Take that, Maximal spy!"

Terrorsaur's head snapped up from what he was doing when he heard Scorponok's shout, accompanied by the sound of a missile firing. He looked skyward to see what his companion was shooting at, and looked just in time to see a missile hitting its target—it looked like a large bird…

"It's that new Maximal—the one that scrapped me!" Terrorsaur said out loud, leaping to his feet. "Back off, that one is mine! Terrorsaur, TERROIZE!" With that, Terrorsaur dropped the tools he had been handling awkwardly with the pterosaur digits on the ends of his wings, and transformed into his robot mode.

His circuits protested painfully as a surge went through his systems—there was a lot of energon radiation in this area, so he wouldn't be able to stay in robot mode for long. He ordered his systems to increase the energon tolerance to maximum, then he ran forward, holding his blaster at the ready.

Airazer had fallen on the ground, and she seemed to be damaged. "Airazer… Maximize!" she cried out; her voice sounded a bit strained. She transformed, and shuddered as the energon radiation sent a light surge through her circuits. She gritted her teeth and seemed to ignore it. She quickly aimed the blasters mounted on her wrists at Scorponok, and effectively disabled him.

Scorponok collapsed on the ground, going into stasis lock.

Terrorsaur cackled, and aimed his weapon at the Maximal. _At least now I will have her all to myself, _he thought. "And now, let me show you my gratitude for what you did to me during our first encounter!" he exclaimed.

"Oh it was nothing," Airazer retorted, turning her weapons on him. "I'll gladly do it again." She then opened fire, at the same instant Terrorsaur did.

Unfortunately for her, Terrorsaur's shot hit a nearby energon crystal—not a very large one, but it was enough to cause an explosion. However, Terrorsaur was close enough to get caught in the blast as well. Both of them were thrown backward, and in opposite directions.

Airazer cried out, feeling pain surge through her entire body. It only took her a nanosecond to realize that her systems were shorting out. "Beast mode!" she yelped, and felt some immediate relief after she changed back into a falcon.

Meanwhile, Terrorsaur was having similar problems. He'd been forced to revert to his beast mode as well, because his energon resistance was gone, and he'd suffered some damage to his systems.

"Ohhhh my aching head," Terrorsaur moaned as he shakily got to his feet. "Ack!" he squawked as some of his circuitry sparked beneath his animal flesh. "Seems I'm due for a trip to the CR chamber, again," he muttered, and growled at the idea.

A moan that wasn't his own broke into his thoughts, and he saw the wounded Maximal straining to get to her feet. _Oh if only I could transform and blast her,_ he thought, and felt strongly tempted to do it. He thought about doing it for a second, but then his own self-preservation kicked in; he couldn't risk it, not with his systems so damaged, and not in an area so full of energon. _Oh if only I could leave her scattered remains behind me, at least this would be worth it,_ he moped. Instead, he was going to have to basically leave her be while he limped back to the base just to go right back to the CR chamber.

Airazer looked around herself, and took notice of him. "Begin internal repairs," she murmured to herself, not taking her eyes off of him. She studied him in silence for a moment, then finally said, "I take it you're damaged as well."

"Duh!" Terrorsaur said. "Do you think I'd be standing here in my beast mode if I wasn't damaged? If I was fully functional, you would be lying in a pile of slag right now! Just like you left me!" He took a menacing step toward her.

Airazer took a step back, but otherwise held her ground, and returned his gaze evenly. "From what I remember, you wanted to reprogram me to be a Predacon, and you would have harmed Rhinox if I hadn't come out of my stasis pod," she said.

"Well, it's war!" Terrorsaur said. "And the Predacons are going to win—and that means we must destroy all those who oppose us!"

"Then I guess you were simply asking to get shot up, and you're still doing it now as well," Airazer said. "I and the other Maximals _will_ defend ourselves, and keep you from harming any of us. Until you and the other Predacons are defeated."

Terrorsaur humphed. "Dream on, bird brain! You Maximals aren't powerful or cunning enough to best us!"

Airazer may have retorted, but didn't for two reasons. One was because if she had retorted, it would have only continued their arguing, thus wasting time. The other reason was because her internal circuitry gave off a spark, apparently surging a little. She grunted in pain, staggering a bit.

She groaned softly. "Don't know if I'm going to make it," she murmured, then immediately regretted saying it in front of the Predacon. It wasn't like _he_ needed to hear her admitting weakness, even though he wasn't in the greatest shape himself.

"Well, you have started your internal repairs," Terrorsaur said indifferently. "It'll probably hold you over. I just hope _I _will be able to make it back to _my_ base."

Airazer sucked in a painful breath. It seemed that her beast mode had been somewhat damaged, too. "Perhaps we could… assist each other." Part of her hated the suggestion even after it left her mouth, but at the same time, it seemed like a practical course of action; both of them were damaged. Therefore, they were both in the same boat, so to speak.

"Assist each other?!" Terrorsaur said, as though he couldn't believe his audio receptors. "Why would I want to help you?!"

"Because if we both help each other, then we better the chances of getting ourselves to safety," Airazer said. "Just consider it a… temporary alliance."

"Humph! And just how would you propose we help each other?" Terrorsaur asked.

"We could try to help each other get to the Maximal base," Airazer said slowly.

"Oh, you must think I'm stupid! You really think I would willingly go to _your_ base just to get scrapped, or become a prisoner of you Maximals?!"

"Not a prisoner… I'm sure Optimus would let you use our spare CR chamber just to get repaired, in payment for helping me."

"Yeah right, like I'm gonna believe that."

"Well I'm not going to your Predacon base!" Airazer glared. "You would definitely take me prisoner or scrap me."

"I never said _you_ could go there anywhere!" Terrorsaur snapped. "Not after you blew me up and left me—"

"Oh save it," Airazer sighed in exasperation, raising her wings in sort of a shrug. "I see it's useless trying to reason with you." She cocked her head to one side. "But you know, if you do come to the Maximal base, at least you'll stand some chance. You know that we Maximals do things in a different way… I assure you Optimus wouldn't take you prisoner, not if I speak to him first."

"You're hardly in any condition to speak to _anyone_," Terrorsaur growled.

Airazer cocked a brow, almost coyly. "I'm surprised, are you actually concerned for my health?" she asked.

Terrorsaur's beak dropped. "Don't be stupid!" he said. "I wish your damage was _worse._ I wish I could transform and blow you to atoms, as painfully as possible!"

"Charming," Airazer said sarcastically. "But you know, we're not solving anything by standing here arguing. We're only giving our damaged systems a chance to get worse."

"Maybe I hope yours _do_ get worse!" the Predacon retorted. "Perhaps if we stand around here long enough, you'll keel over!"

"And what's to prevent you from doing the same? Come on," Airazer said, rolling her eyes, "I know how you Predacons are; at least I think I do. In the end, your own self-preservation overrides everything else. Even a grudge, even hatred. You just want to live to fight another day, to conquer."

"And what makes you such an expert on me?" Terrorsaur snarled.

"Hardly an expert on _you,_ I am simply saying what I think I've noticed about Predacons," Airazer corrected. "Do you always take things so personally?"

"I'm not taking anything personally! I just don't like you or your stupid ideas!"

"Fine, then! Just go your own way, and I'll go mine. And maybe with some luck, we'll both get back to our bases, or at least get to where our people will find us."

"Sounds like the best plan to me." Terrorsaur said, then turned his back on her, and began to walk away, although his movements were slow and stiff due to the damage. Airazer looked at him for a moment, then turned and started walking in the opposite direction.

Then, after taking about five steps, Terrorsaur fell over, flat on his face. "Ouch," he said, his voice muffled. Airazer stopped walking and glanced over her shoulder at him. She saw him flat against the ground, and presumed that his beak was probably pressing against the dirt… or possibly even in the dirt.

As if in response to that observation, Terrorsaur pushed himself up off the ground with his wings, and began spitting dirt out of his beak. "Yuck!" he exclaimed.

Despite everything that had happened, and the fact that she was badly damaged near Predacon territory, in the middle of an energon-rich zone, Airazer couldn't help herself; she burst out laughing.

Terrorsaur pushed himself to his feet, and glared openly at her. "It's not funny!" he shouted.

"I know," Airazer said, her laughter dying down. "But maybe you might be ready to listen to me now?"

Terrorsaur seethed, gritting his teeth together and continuing to glare.

"Come with me," Airazer offered again. "And maybe you'll see… we're not all that bad. After all, one of your kind joined us…"

"Dinobot is a traitor, nothing more," Terrorsaur said. Part of his mind began to work on the idea though. On the one hand, he wasn't sure if he would make it back to the Predacon base. But he also didn't want to run the risk of making Megatron think that he was consorting with the enemy at all. Terrorsaur wasn't exactly the Predacon's most favorite person at this time.

"Well, offer still stands," Airazer said. "But I know you probably don't want to join us, at least not now. But we could at least help each other to get repaired."

Terrorsaur sighed. His excuses were running out, and he was getting sick of standing here arguing. "Oh fine," he finally said with a shrug of his wings. "What exactly do you propose?"

"Aiding each other as we walk," Airazer said. "Walk closely side by side, each lending support as the other needs it."

"Ew," Terrorsaur said, shuddering as though the idea of touching a Maximal in a non-violent way made him ill.

Or perhaps it was simply the fact that she was a _female_ Maximal. Airazer couldn't be exactly sure. "'Ew?'" she said, and if she'd had eyebrows in her falcon form, she would have raised them high on her forehead. "I'm not contagious, you know."

"No, you're just a Maximal," Terrorsaur said. "Oh by the inferno, let's just get this over with!" He hesitantly and almost tentatively draped the edge of his wing over her back.

"Don't worry, I won't bite," Airazer said teasingly, and leaned her side against his, draping his wing across his neck and over the back of his head.

Then, very slowly, they began to move forward, facing the general direction of the Maximal base. They were careful to move their feet in unison in order to keep their balance, and to support each other as they moved.

"Cozy," Terrorsaur muttered. He then winced. Did he _really_ say that?

"Oh yes, you're a regular flyboy."

"What's _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Nothing."

The pair continued on in silence for a while, and found that the system was working. It wasn't long before they managed to get themselves out of the area that was rich in energon.

"How much farther?" Terrorsaur asked, breaking the silence.

"On foot? Far," Airazer replied.

"Oh, wonderful. So we have to continue this ridiculous journey for an indefinite amount of time."

"It's better than stumbling and then lying in stasis lock, waiting for someone to find you," Airazer replied.

Terrorsaur grunted. He knew she was right though. Stasis lock was a way of slowing down degradation, and keeping a bot alive, but it didn't keep them alive forever. Terrorsaur's mind briefly thought of Scorponok, who was still lying in the middle of an energon field in stasis lock, heavily damaged. But at the same time, he didn't care. Maybe if the scorpion Predacon perished, it would give Terrorsaur a chance to achieve a higher rank.

If rank even _meant_ anything on this cursed planet…

Another silence fell between them, and they continued their journey in silence for a long while.

The next time the silence was broken was when a power surge suddenly erupted through Terrorsaur's systems, causing him to scream in pain and falter in his step. This caused Airazer to stumble as well, and somehow they both ended up falling and rolling in a tangle of wings.

Airazer had a difficult time untangling herself from Terrorsaur because his systems seemed to be shorting out, even in beast mode, so he was having convulsions. Once Airazer managed to free herself, she tried to get a look at him to see what was wrong.

_I'm gonna have to risk transforming,_ she thought. There was no way she was going to make a accurate diagnosis in her beast mode, at least not quickly enough. "Airazer, Maximize!" she said over Terrorsaur's continued screams.

She then proceeded to scan him, and then found what the problem was. It seemed that energon had contaminated one of his minor systems, and the contamination had spread to a vital system. Then she found the reason why the contamination spread so quickly; there was a damaged area on his beast mode, which allowed some energon radiation to gradually leak through and get into his systems.

"Terrorsaur," she said, grabbing his shoulders and trying to hold him still—which was difficult with his flailing wings and beak. She had to dodge his clawed legs when they kicked upward, and she ended up sitting on his chest, her knees pressing against his sides and serving as an effective means to hold down his wings, at least somewhat. Then she gently grabbed his long beak in her hands. "Terrorsaur, can you hear me?" she asked him.

He stopped screaming, and looked up at her. Then his eyes widened, as though he'd just realized she had him in a rather… awkward position. "Yes," he finally said. "My systems are going haywire! But I think it's stopped… for the moment."

"I think your repair systems got a handle on the problem, at least a temporary fix," Airazer said. "But it won't last for long."

"Are you saying I'm going to… terminate?" The thought seemed to frighten him.

"Well, it looks to me like you might have to go into stasis lock soon," Airazer said. "But there may be a way to prevent that, and buy you a little more time." Airazer gasped as another surge went through her circuitry, and she clutched at her torso. "But we're going to have to work fast," she said, her voice sounding strained.

"What are we supposed to do?" Terrorsaur asked. He was so terrified at the idea of dying, or going into stasis lock and being helpless, that he seemed to have forgotten that he hated Airazer, and that they were still enemies. Nonetheless, even though he didn't realize or acknowledge it yet… somehow she seemed like _less_ of an enemy to him, now.

Airazer carefully stood and hopped off of him, landing in a crouched position beside him. Then she turned to him and said, "Transform, now."

"What?"

"Do it!" Airazer said impatiently, glaring.

Terrorsaur did what was told, changing from a pterosaur into his robot form. Airazer then stood in front of him, and gazed into his face for a moment. She noticed that he did have some attractive features—particularly his shining, pearl-white skin, which went well with his red eyes, his scarlet helmet, and a torso plating which matched his headgear.

"Now," she said, "lie down."

He did a double-take. "Excuse me?" he said blankly.

Airazer shoved against him, which ended up knocking them both to the ground. Airazer felt a bit sheepish afterwards, especially since she landed on top of him. But she quickly recovered and sat up, then said, "I'm going to need to operate, fast, before the energon buildup starts to short out my systems, and effects yours worse," she said, and began to dig her fingers into the edge of his torso plating.

"Hey wait a minute, what are you doing?!" Terrorsaur demanded, grabbing her wrists.

"I need to reroute the power flow of your critical systems," Airazer answered. "Also, your mech fluid has been infected, at least in some areas; I need to do something to slow the spread of that contamination so it doesn't affect your critical systems."

"I don't want you pawing around inside me!" Terrorsaur said, struggling with her. He tried to sit up, and succeeded, but groaned—he hadn't realized how weak he really was.

"Well would you rather I wait until you're in stasis lock?" she asked. "Although by then, it will have spread so far there won't be anything I can do anymore and you would have to get to a CR chamber. And I'm not sure if I can drag you the rest of the way."

Terrorsaur didn't like either one of his options. He didn't want this Maximal pawing around on his insides, but he didn't like the alternative either. "You sure you know how to do this?" he asked her. He didn't let go of her wrists, but he had loosened his grip a little.

"I took a couple of courses at the academy on Cybertron, long before I even signed onto this mission," Airazer replied. "Don't worry; I know what I'm doing." She yanked her wrists free from his hands.

Terrorsaur still didn't like it. But it seemed that he didn't have much choice in the matter. So he quietly lay back down on the ground, as flat as possible. "Well then… go ahead," he said with a reluctant sigh.

Airazer quickly became too busy and too preoccupied with what she was doing to think much about the circumstances, or even what she was doing. But Terrorsaur flinched slightly, and cringed inwardly, as she pried off his torso plating. He'd never had a female take off his torso plate before, and the thought of a Maximal female doing it was a bit gross to him.

Yet somehow, at the same time… it didn't seem so bad. Perhaps it was simply because his life depended on it, or maybe because he was just getting used to her. But either way, it just didn't seem too bad to have her doing this.

"Hey watch it, I'm ticklish," he said at some point, as she worked in his circuitry. In reality he wasn't ticklish; he barely even knew what the term meant. He wasn't sure why he said it; perhaps it was to help ease the tension he felt.

Airazer glanced at his face for a moment, then uttered a simple, "Shut up," and went back to work.

Thankfully it didn't take too long for her to finish the work—at least it went more quickly than she'd thought it would. When she was done, she put his torso plate back over his chest and snapped it back into place, just as her systems began to short out. "Beast mode!" she said, and changed back into her falcon form.

Terrorsaur stood up, feeling improved (although not %100 up to capacity) and transformed back into his pterosaur mode.

Then the two of them just stood there for a moment, looking at each other.

"Why did you do that?" Terrorsaur finally asked. "You know I wouldn't have done that for you."

Airazer cocked her head to one side. "Why not?"

"Because you're the enemy!" Terrorsaur snapped, as if it was totally obvious. "You don't help your enemy."

"We do have an alliance, albeit a temporary one," Airazer reminded him. "Besides, we don't have to be enemies at all."

Terrorsaur fell silent. He was beginning to feel a conflict in his circuits, and he was certain that _this_ particular conflict had nothing much to do with the damage he still suffered. He felt… torn now, when it came to his thoughts and feelings about Airazer. Part of him still hated her for what she'd done to him the first time they'd met, and he clung stubbornly to that grudge. He also knew she was the enemy, a _Maximal._ Yet at the same time… he found himself…

Found himself what? Growing _fond_ of her? Well, perhaps he was at least a _little _grateful she'd done some work on his circuits and bought him some more time. But really, he didn't owe her anything. Once they both got repaired, and returned to their respective bases, things would just go back to the way they always were—they would both be at war again.

"Well, it's true we don't have to be enemies," Terrorsaur found himself saying. "You know… you could still come back with me to the Predacon base, and become one of us."

"Thanks for the offer, but I'll pass," Airazer said. "I like being a Maximal just fine."

"Too bad," Terrorsaur muttered. "You could have been on the winning side, even now, if those Maximals hadn't gotten to you first."

"And if I say that I prefer to be what I am, and not be altered?" Airazer shook her head slightly. "You know, that's the problem with you Predacons. All you do is use people for your own gain. I'd rather help others, and care about others… not use them or want to destroy them." She held out a hand toward his torso plating indicatively. "That's why I helped you," she said.

"You Maximals are fools!" Terrorsaur spat. "Fools, the lot of you!"

Airazer sighed softly, and shrugged. Apparently there were some things she simply couldn't change his mind about, and it would be a waste of time to try. _I have to remember that he is a Predacon to the core, and so he thinks like a Predacon, not a Maximal,_ she told herself. Yet somehow, for some reason, she found herself wishing she could somehow get through to him, and get him to change his mind.

_But of course I can't force him to change his ways, nor would I even if I could, that's not the Maximal way,_ she thought. She would not even think of doing to Terrorsaur what the Predacons would have done to do her if they'd had the chance.

"Let's go," she finally said, and Terrorsaur grudgingly moved toward her, and they recreated the same position they'd had before, leaning against each other with Terrorsaur's wing draped over Airazer's back, and Airazer's wing draped over his neck.

Once again, another silence had fallen between them, and neither of them spoke until after the sun had set, and the stars began to shine brightly against the dark, night sky. The silence was broken when Terrorsaur asked his companion a simple question: "Why do you keep looking up at the sky like that?"

Airazer ceased looking skyward for a moment, and glanced at Terrorsaur with a thoughtful expression. "I'm not out much at night," she said. "Or when I am, I don't usually have much opportunity to look at the sky, because I am usually in the sky looking at the ground."

"Ah," Terrorsaur said simply. _Scouting missions, right._

"Besides," Airazer went on when the Predacon said nothing else, "I find myself… wondering if the stars are really the Eyes of the Matrix."

"Oh, surely you don't believe in those old wives' tales," Terrorsaur groaned.

"Well, whether it's true or not, it certainly makes a nice bedtime story for Sparklings," Airazer said, almost cheerfully.

All Maximals and Predacons believed in an afterlife—there was the Pit, and the Matrix. It was said that the greatest of Cybertron lived in the Matrix, and all of the evil-doers went to the Pit. And it was said that the stars in the sky were the Eyes of the Matrix—each one represented a single spark, and all of those in the Matrix looked down upon the deeds that were performed by the living. When a spark left its body, after the body died, it went to the Matrix—and if the spark was deemed good and worthy, it was allowed to join the Matrix. If it was deemed evil and corrupt, it was kicked out of the Matrix, and sent into the Pit to burn in fire for eternity.

Terrorsaur wasn't sure if he really bought all of this. _If any of this slag is true, may I die by falling into fire or lava!_ He snorted at the thought.

"I am getting tired," Airazer said suddenly. Terrorsaur looked at her. Indeed, she seemed to be dragging a bit, and her stance was drooping slightly.

"But we have to get to the base!" Terrorsaur exclaimed.

"We should rest for a little while," Airazer said. "We can let our systems relax for a while, maybe we can even get some sleep. Then we can continue on in a few hours."

The Predacon didn't like this at all, but he couldn't go on without her. He couldn't just walk up to the Maximal base all by himself without Airazer to vouch for him, so that he could use the CR chamber there. _That's the only reason why we should stop… because I need her, and I can't have her keeling over on me before we get there!_ Terrorsaur told himself.

"Very well," he finally said. "But let's rest somewhere that's… secure. Like, in those rocks over there," he said, pointing with his free wing.

Airazer looked at where he was pointing, then nodded. "Looks good to me," she said. "Let's go." And they began to move in unison toward the clump of rocks, which were a short distance away from them.

Once they got there, they laid themselves down as comfortably as possible. Airazer was content to lie down with her feet neatly tucked beneath her, and tucking her head under her wing. Terrorsaur couldn't do much except lay himself flat against the ground, folding his wings at his sides.

_She looks so… peaceful,_ Terrorsaur found himself thinking as he looked at her and then wanted to slap himself. What was he _thinking_ that for? _I must be getting soft!_ He thought, disgusted with himself. _Next thing you'll know I'll actually start caring about this stupid Maximal!_ He shuddered slightly at the thought.

He rested his head against the ground, trying to get comfortable enough to sleep. The soil was a bit rocky, not to mention a bit cool; he much preferred sleeping in robot mode, in his quarters, on his bunk. _If I ever get back there again,_ he thought.

He began to shiver slightly. _Slag, now I'm cold!_ He thought, and tried wrapping his wings around himself. It didn't help much; he continued to shiver.

Then he noticed that Airazer was looking at him—peering at him with one eye above the edge of her wing. "What are _you_ looking at?" he growled.

Airazer withdrew her head from her wing and looked at him directly. "Are you cold?" she asked.

"Oh no I'm trembling in awe from the awesome presence of the little birdie Maximal!" Terrorsaur said sarcastically. "Of course I'm cold, you nitwit!"

"Well there is something we could do about that," Airazer said slowly. "We could share body heat."

"You mean… lay next to each other?" Terrorsaur shuddered. "Ew—as if walking with our wings draped over each other isn't bad enough?! No!"

"Your choice," Airazer said with a shrug, and tucked her head back under her wing.

Terrorsaur let out a loud sigh. She seemed to be having a… peculiar effect on him, especially ever since she'd saved him from shorting out or going into stasis lock. _What has she done to me?_ He wondered. Had she tampered with his programming somehow, when she was messing with his circuits? For some reason… he found himself _wanting_ to be near her, even though the idea appalled him at the same time.

"Oh fine!" he finally said, and slowly moved closer to her. Airazer raised her head again, and then moved to meet him halfway. The next thing they both knew, they were side by side on the ground, almost cuddling against each other. Airazer rested her head atop Terrorsaur's beak, closed her eyes, and drifted off to sleep. Terrorsaur then found himself being slightly lulled by the gentle rhythm of her breathing.

_She MUST have done something to me,_ Terrorsaur thought, making a mental note to run a full diagnostic of his systems and programming when he got back to the Predacon base. _It's a good thing none of my fellow Predacons are here… I'd never hear the end of this._

--

The next thing Terrorsaur knew, it was morning. And somehow or other, he had his wing wrapped around Airazer's body, and he felt her own body heat warming his body. Her feathers felt soft against him, and he suddenly realized he was stroking her head gently with the digits of his free wing.

_I need to stop this!_ He thought, and attempted to pull away from her quickly. She let out a startled yelp as he yanked away from her, sending her rolling.

"What is it?" she asked, looking around. "Are we under attack?"

"No!" Terrorsaur said. "I am getting the hell away from you! I don't know what you've done to me but it's going to stop now!"

Airazer stood frozen, narrowing her eyes in puzzlement. "What I've done to you? What are you talking about?"

"I don't know what you've done! Only you know!" Terrorsaur cried. "Just stay away from me!"

Airazer was too confused by his behavior to know what to say, but while she was silent, Terrorsaur looked at himself. "Hey," he said, and ran a quick internal scan, "I seem to be… almost fully repaired!" He gave his wings an experimental flap. "That means… I should be able to get back to the Predacon base on my own!"

Airazer's eyes widened and she gave her own wings an experimental flap. "You're right," she said. "Wait a minute… in the medical repair course that I took at the academy, it did say that sometimes if two damaged bots sleep in very close proximity to each other, sometimes the repair systems somehow… merge their efforts, improving and speeding up the process of repair." Airazer blinked, looking slightly awed. "But I read that this is somewhat… rare, because the two bots have to be… compatible in some ways." She trailed off, lost in thought.

"Seems I owe you my life again, then," Terrorsaur said. "Seems I don't even _need_ to visit your stinkin' Maximal base, either." He straightened, then cried out, "Terrorsaur, TERRORIZE!"

Once the transformation process was complete, and aimed his weapon directly at Airazer's chest. "After all I did for you?" she exclaimed, her eyes widening. He couldn't be sure, but he almost thought he saw some… hurt in her eyes.

"I don't know what you've done to me, or why I feel this way," Terrorsaur said slowly, "but I just have one thing I want to do before we part ways! Now transform, and let me end this!"

Airazer didn't miss a beat—she quickly transformed from her falcon mode to her robot mode, because in her animal mode she was pretty much helpless. At least being in robot mode gave her a fighting chance. She aimed her wrist-mounted weapons directly at his torso plating. "We don't have to do this," she said, narrowing her eyes, keeping her weapon at the ready.

"Yes… I do," Terrorsaur said. But then he lowered his weapon.

Airazer raised her eyebrows, surprised. She tentatively lowered her weapon, at least slightly, but didn't lower her guard. What was he doing? Was he up to something?

Terrorsaur took a few steps toward her, closing in the distance between them. Airazer allowed him to approach, and he stopped just in front of her, staring deeply into her eyes. He noticed just how lovely those large, blue eyes were… he swore they looked like gemstones, more precious than energon…

Then he grabbed her by the shoulders and pulled her against his torso, and pressed his lips against hers. She stiffened briefly, but then found herself relaxing, and even sliding her arm around his waist. Terrorsaur released her shoulders and gripped her into a tight embrace, kissing her harder.

Finally, their lips broke apart, although neither of them could be sure who broke the kiss. Then, they slowly backed away from each other. It seemed like neither of them could think of anything to say… somehow the kiss itself, along with the embrace had said it all. And the breaking of the kiss, and the backing away from each other, basically said anything else that needed to be said.

_It would never work,_ Airazer realized, and felt a twinge of regret in her spark. In fact… it hurt a little. _It would just never work… at least, not now._

Terrorsaur turned and began to walk away. But then he paused, and turned to look at her again. "Maybe… another place, another time," he finally murmured; his voice was just barely audible. "But… not like this." He shook his head, and frowned slightly. "Not like this."

He then turned and, transforming to his beast mode, quickly flew away.

Airazer watched him go, and allowed a single tear to slide down her cheek. She knew that they had shared something very special, but now it was over, just like that. And the next time they met, they would be enemies again.

_No, maybe… I can still get through to him, somehow,_ she thought, as she turned away, facing the direction of the Maximal base. _If we meet again—and I know we will—maybe… maybe…_

She couldn't even complete the sentence in her mind. It all just seemed like a big "maybe", no matter how she looked at it.

"I must get back to the base," she whispered to herself, and transformed to beast mode. She still had a ways to go—it would just be much shorter now that she could fly again. And yet, after everything that had happened… it seemed like a very long flight home.


End file.
